Thursday at Our House

I have too many chickens. But *#ck off, it's better than too many valiums. Or is it.

The chickens come swarming at you when you go out to get their eggs. As Lilly says, it's kinda scary. They're just looking for food. Which I always have. Hence the swarm. It's like a big chicken group hug.

Lilly is now in the tub, and Becky the dog is laying in there with her, and so is the black bunny. Home on the prairie.

Summer means never taking a shower because we swim too much. So Lilly is finally in her weekly bath, at 1 in the afternoon, because that's what summer is made of.

The older kids just got up, at noon, because this is the summer of the teenagers.

I got up at 7 and snuck out to ride with the neighborhood old ladies. Usually I just ride with the one who is my age, but today we buddied up with some chicks I didn't know and had a little adventure out in the wilderness. One of them looked so old I felt like didn't I just graduate from college? Are these people MY AGE?? I'm about to be 49 in a few days.

Out on the trail I decided I had to look past the grey hair and wrinkles and remember that that is just a girl on a horse.

We sloshed through the creek, and went up and down hills, and through bendy maze overhanging branches trail. I saw a hawk in a tree. But mostly the trail is good for the calm slow breathing you can do, and the sound of Dewey's feet.

Back home a girl came to get the black bunny. She had on a red raggedy ann wig. I was scared, for a minute, for the bunny. But she was just a girl who wanted a bunny. And had bad hair.

When I came back in, Nathan, who is taller than me, passed by and glanced out the window at the girl.

"Why'd we sell that bunny to Elmo?" he said.